When to Seek Urgent Care for a Beach Injury

Imagine this. You’re on vacation. You’re with family or you’re alone. The decision is simple: the beach or the mountains. The sun and the sand and the water call to you. You decide to go to the beach. You’re there, ready to have a good time, and suddenly…you’re injured. A trip to urgent care is necessary. Your trip, which was supposed to be fun, has become unfortunate.

While this may seem like an occurrence that happens rarely, beach and beach-related accidents happen more often than you’ll think. And while many of them seem preventable if the necessary precautions are taken, a more sizable percentage of American than you may think get sidelined by them–and have a trip to the urgent care.

Here are three injuries sustained at the beach.

Alcohol Poisoning

Although this may surprise some, for the youth in America and some full-fledged adults as well, drinking on the beach goes along with the happy fun vibe that everyone wants to feel. More and more, drinking has become wound in the culture with beach trips, and this is especially true of spring break.

During spring breaks, hundreds of thousands of college students flock to beaches as far apart as California to Cancun, Mexico, to party and live life. They become entwined with alcohol and many, who are carried away in the moment, will drink too much. Therein becomes the problems of alcohol poisoning.

Sun Stroke

Sun stroke is caused when an individual on a very hot day sits or stands or works out in the sun without adequate protection. Heat stroke occurs when the body rises to a temperature above 105.1 degrees Fahrenheit and can cause dizziness, seizures, headaches, and nausea, along with other, more serious symptoms.

Sun stroke is difficult to prevent if the circumstances are more overbearing than manageable but fortunately, there are several ways to prevent or mitigate sun stroke. The first is simple: stay hydrated. Continue to drink water. The second: Find time in the shade. Bring a beach umbrella or a hat.

Cut Feet

It makes sense that cut feet are considered a major beach related injury. The sand is the sand: it is wonderful to walk on–smooth and grainy. However, it also covers a great deal of problems: shells that are sharp, bottle that have been broken, a knife that was brought out to the beach and left there.

There are many ways to cut feet at the beach, whether walking on sand or in the water.

It’s important to prevent this issue from happening.

When to Seek Out an Urgent Care Facility

Emergency room visits now top 110 million annually

According to the CDC, there are around 37.2 million injury related visits to the ER annually.

In 2015, 89% of urgent care centers saw an increase in patient visits in 2014.